FORERUNNER CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP MIKE BICKLE KNOWING THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES Transcript: 11/07/09

Transcription

1 FORERUNNER CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP MIKE BICKLE KNOWING THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES Transcript: 11/07/09 Please refer to the teaching notes for this message. INTRODUCTION In a few moments we ll look at Jeremiah 3. This is session 5, and we re talking about sign events and sign trends. Trends and events are different. In the Signs of the Times series, we re finding that in the Bible there are events and trends that are prophesied by Jesus, the apostles, and the Old Testament prophets. We re to identify those trends and events as they happen and accelerate particularly as they accelerate together, at the same time, in the same time frame. We re to conclude that we re in the generation. We don t know what part of the generation, but we re in the generation of the Lord s return. These trends aren t just related to Israel. In our next session we ll look at trends related to the Gentiles and the nations of the world. There are quite a few trends that the Bible talks about. Many believers aren t aware of these trends, but they re happening right in front of their eyes. They re in the Bible and they bring a message from God. The message is, I m preparing My people. I m about to visit in greater glory and I want you to engage with even more zeal and earnestness in faith and confidence. SIGNS AND TRENDS PERTAINING TO THE NATION OF ISRAEL Paragraph A. Jesus gave events and trends pertaining to Jerusalem, the city of Jerusalem, and the nation of Israel that indicate the generation of His return. Again, you want to know those. I ve listed ten of the events and five trends. There are more than that, but I can only cover so much in a short time, but that will give you a good beginning in your study. You want to know them because you want to catch the message and the messages. Well, there s more than one message per sign. The Lord is speaking at numbers of levels in each of these. For example, there s an event like the rebirth of the nation of Israel in That s an actual event that took place. A trend is the unprecedented number of Jewish people becoming saved; or the rise of anti-semitism, which is hatred of the Jewish people. That trend is exploding across the world, and it was prophesied that that trend would happen. And it s reaching levels that are unprecedented in terms of the amount of people getting stirred up worldwide against the Jewish people. JESUS CONNECTED THE TIMING OF HIS COMING TO THE RISE OF THESE SIGNS Paragraph B. Jesus connected the timing of His second coming to these trends and events that would happen in one generation. We won t cover them all, but they re in the notes. This is just a jumpstart so that you can search it out yourself. These events and trends mark one generation as having the unique dynamics of the generation of the Lord s return. There s one generation in all of human history that has the unique dynamics, the positives and the negatives related to the coming of the Lord. And these events and these trends point to that generation, and they mark it. I believe we re in the early days of that generation. When all these events occur, and all the trends accelerate at the same time, then you know you re in that generation. Right now they re not all accelerating, but most of them are. And most of them are accelerating for the first time; they re accelerating together. END-TIME PROPHECY IS CENTERED AROUND THE CITY OF JERUSALEM Paragraph C. This might be a new point to some of you. End-time prophecy is Jerusalem-centric. Now that s kind of a strange word. End-time prophecy centers around the city of Jerusalem even more than the nation of

2 Transcript: 11/06/09 Page 2 Israel, but particularly the city of Jerusalem. What I mean by that is this: God s end-time plan is given in the context of the events that happen in that city. When something significant happens in Jerusalem, it has implications in the spirit across the globe. That s why we pay attention to what is happening in Jerusalem. The Lord speaks through the prophets through the lens of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the reference point. Jerusalem is the primary time indicator. There are other time indicators, but it s the primary one for God s prophetic timetable. In other words, what happens in Jerusalem gives us insight into the timing for all the other events or not all of them, but many of the other events. We can match what happens in Jerusalem to what the Bible says will happen in Jerusalem, and when that happens, then we know it s significant and that there are implications for all the other nations of the earth. It really does relate to us. Paragraph D. One of the most significant prophecies about the end-times, right at the top of the list, is when Gabriel visited Daniel in Daniel 9 and gave him a layout of events that would happen to Israel. But Gabriel focused on Jerusalem, the city of Jerusalem, even more than the nation of Israel. Jerusalem shows up over and over in that prophecy as the key reference point to understanding God s purposes. You can read more on that if you want. But this is one of the most significant prophecies Daniel 9: It s only four verses, but it s loaded with information about what would happen in the future after Daniel s day. THE NATION OF ISRAEL WASN T A NATION FOR NEARLY 2,000 YEARS Paragraph E. Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD; it s a historical fact, a well-known fact. Everyone I know who studies prophecy knows that. But it s a well-known fact around the world. If that s new to you, note it to yourself: 70 AD. You want to get that in your brain. That s when Jerusalem was destroyed, and the nation of Israel was scattered to the four winds of the earth. They were scattered to the nations. So, for the next nearly 2,000 years, Israel was scattered, wandering among the nations. What s more, they took root in many nations and built their families and heritages there, but the city of Jerusalem wasn t under the control of the Jewish people. And the nation of Israel wasn t a nation for nearly 2,000 years. When that happened in 70 AD, about 2,000 years ago, the pause button was pushed on God s prophetic timetable. God paused His prophetic end-time scenario, or plan, or strategy. He put it on pause. What happened for the next 2,000 years is still significant; many events are significant. But nothing had the global eschatological that s a fancy word for end times significance until Jerusalem came under the control of the Jewish people again and the pause button was taken off and the end-time scenario picked up where it left off. The pause button was taken off in I know that many of you love Jesus, but you re new in the IHOP-KC community and are thinking, I don t get the Israel thing. I ve heard people say that, and that s legitimate. I remember the first time I met Bob Jones twenty-seven years ago, when he came and said, You ll have a ministry of singers and musicians from all around the world and they ll pray for Israel. I remember how befuddled I was. He said, Are you a singer or a musician? I said, No.

3 Transcript: 11/06/09 Page 3 He said, Do you know about this worldwide youth movement God has been speaking about? I said, No. He said, Do you ever pray for Israel? I said, No, I m not really into the Israel thing. I said that. I get that concept. I get not being into it. I said, Why? I m really focused in on Kansas City. He said, You ll see one of these days. It s all through the Bible. Well, some time passed and I really began to get hold of it. THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING Paragraph F gives you some significance about Jerusalem. Jerusalem is called the city of the great King by Jesus, the Great King Himself (Mt. 5:35). He says, This is My city forever. Not just for a season forever, My throne will be in Jerusalem. That already makes Jerusalem really special, right? It s the only city called the city of the great King, and it s where His throne will be forever and ever and ever. His throne will be in Jerusalem. The devil knows this, and he s going after it to try and annihilate it and fill it with darkness. Three times in the book of Revelation we read that the New Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem, is going to descend to the earth. And where is the New Jerusalem going to connect with the earth? Right at the earthly Jerusalem. So it s the city of the great King, the city of Jesus throne, but it s the connection point between the New Jerusalem and the earthly Jerusalem. They come together. Jerusalem is critical in God s purposes. We want to know what God says about it in the Bible for the future and for our generation. That s my point: end-time prophecy is Jerusalem-centric. It s not only about Jerusalem, but Jerusalem is a critical gauge to measure what s happening in God s purposes across the earth. There s going to be a great outpouring of the Spirit on Jerusalem even before Jesus returns, and that will have significant implications to the Body of Christ worldwide. When Jerusalem is being attacked by the powers of darkness, there s a red alert in the Body of Christ: the enemy is raging. Of course the enemy is always raging, but it s a time to engage in the battle in an even more specific way, in terms of God s end-time purposes for the earth. THE NATIONS SHALL BE GATHERED TO THE THRONE OF THE LORD Paragraph G. Jeremiah 3:17 is describing the time of the second coming. Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord (Jer. 3:17). The city will be called Jesus throne. All the nations will be gathered to the throne of Jesus in the city of Jerusalem (ibid). And they ll be gathered to the name of the Lord, which is Jesus. And this will all happen in one city, the city of Jerusalem. I m overlooking a number of points on the notes; that s why they re on the notes: so that you can check them out, read the verses, and think on them for a while. These notes are on the Internet for anyone who wants them all eight sessions on the signs of the times. And as usual, for those who are new with us, I update them

4 Transcript: 11/06/09 Page 4 regularly. I take the old version, which may be four to six pages, and I add eight pages to it. So if one of these themes touches you in a new way, go back in a few months and you may find that the notes have been updated. Top of page two. Sign number one. We ll look at ten sign events. Events are things that happen as events. You can mark the very day they happened. Trends, on the other hand, increase over time and build in momentum. Some of these we re just barely going to mention, and you can research them more on your own in the weeks and months ahead. PROPHETIC SIGN NUMBER ONE: THE ESTABLISHING OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL, 1948 Number one I ve said already, but I d like to make the point again. The establishing of the state of Israel, Now Israel had to be a nation for many of these prophecies to come to pass. If Israel isn t a nation, then the Jewish people can t control the city of Jerusalem. And there are many implications to that. So I ll just say this; Israel had to become a nation. Many end-time prophecies can t happen until Israel becomes a nation. So, from the second until the eighteenth century, Bible teachers said, We don t get how these Bible prophecies are going to come to pass, because they can t happen literally until Israel is a nation and there s not a chance Israel is going to become a nation. There wasn t a chance from the human point of view that Israel would suddenly become a nation. So this really threw off Bible teachers for 2,000 years, for they didn t know how it could happen. So what many Bible teachers did was to make it spiritual. They spiritualized it. It s called amillennialism: they took Jerusalem and spiritualized it so that it wasn t really Jerusalem, but the people of God worldwide. Then they applied all the promises to the Church only the positive promises, however; none of the negative! For example, when Zechariah prophesies in Zechariah 14 that all the nations will gather around Jerusalem to destroy it, and take half the population captive, no one claimed that for the Church. CAN A NATION BE BORN IN ONE DAY? Here s one reason they spiritualize it. There are several reasons, but number one, there was just no possible way for this to happen. Israel had no army; they were spread out over all the nations. They had no collective power on the international scene. They had economic and political power in some of the nations that they were in, but not on an international scale. They had no power. Isaiah 66:8. Here s what Isaiah said; he saw it ahead of time. I don t think he knew there would be a 2,000-year gap. But he said, Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children (Isa. 66:8). He says, This has never happened ; however, after 2,000 years of Israel being scattered across the nations, suddenly on one day they became a nation and it shocked the world. May 14, 1948 Israel became a nation. Then people had to go back to their Bible prophecies and figure them out again. It s real. Oh my goodness. If this is real, then it means that all the other prophecies related to it are real as well, and literal. That s what I mean by real; they re actually to be taken seriously. NO NATION DEPRIVED OF A HOMELAND HAS EVER REGAINED IT AFTER 2,000 YEARS Paragraph B talks about Deuteronomy 30, talking about the end times. When you read all of Deuteronomy 30 in context, it actually makes it clear that it s talking about the end times. Here s what it says in verse 3. Moses

5 Transcript: 11/06/09 Page 5 prophesies that the Lord will gather them from the nations and bring them back to the land. Then they will possess the land (v. 5). They ll have the land again. And again, Bible teachers say, We don t know what that could mean? No nation has ever been without a homeland and returned and captured their ancient territory again. No nation in history ever returned after a generation and captured their homeland. It has never happened in human history not even after one generation. This isn t one generation; this is 2,000 years. There s not a chance! Suddenly, a nation was born in a day. And the pause button was taken off either when Israel was born in a day or when Jerusalem came under the authority of the Jewish people one or the other. I don t know which is the most significant. They re both so important. There are a number of verses listed here that talk about how in the last days, or in the end times, Israel would come back into the land. Ezekiel 38:8. You can read this more in detail on your own, but it s a message to the Antichrist. His prophetic title is Gog and Magog. I believe that s the Antichrist. Ezekiel says, in essence, You ll come to the land of Israel and you ll do these things and Israel will be back in the land when this happens. Again, for years people asked, How does Israel get back into the land? It says they ll be out of the land and the land will be desolate, because they ll be away from the land for many years. But they ll come back to the land in the hour when he attacks them. You can read that on your own from Ezekiel 38. THE JEWS WILL RETURN TO THE LAND AS UNBELIEVERS Paragraph C. This is actually more significant, this next point in Ezekiel 36. It s more significant than meets the eye if you re new with this. So just kind of register this, and then say, Oh, that was really significant. Ezekiel 36:24-26 tells us that Israel would be gathered back to the land while they were unbelievers. We might naturally think that they would get saved in the nations, they would love Jesus, and because they love Jesus they would go back to Jerusalem to do His will. But only a few did that. There are a few exceptions, but according to Ezekiel 36, the vast majority, before they were even saved, when they were still filthy and they had no relationship to the Holy Spirit, returned to the land led by God in their unbelief, and He called them dry bones. He said, When I get you in the land, then I ll visit you. So the re-gathering back to the land is while Israel was yet unconverted. As you ponder the implications, as you study this more, you ll think, Ah, that s a key point. Some Bible teachers would say, What would be the point of God gathering Israel as unbelievers? Well, the prophets say they come back as unbelievers and then they get converted in the land and in the nations. They get converted in the nations as well. But there s a dynamic outpouring of the Spirit, and God visits them in the land that He promised them. He visits them and reveals Jesus to them in the city of Jerusalem. Jesus reveals Himself to them in a very dynamic way.

6 Transcript: 11/06/09 Page 6 Now, He s been revealing Himself through the centuries, but in small numbers. But there s going to be a global outpouring of the Spirit and there s going to be a massive turning to Jesus of the Jewish people, but the first explosion is going to be in the city of Jerusalem itself the city of the great King. THE GREATEST MIRACLE OF MODERN TIMES Paragraph D. No event is more dramatic. No event is more convincing than the impossible situation of living for 2,000 years without a homeland, without any political and international clout, in any way that would warrant being able to start their own nation. I mean, there was nothing close to that. The Jews in the earth were ridiculed by many nations, not just Nazi Germany. Many nations had negative opinions. Suddenly they became a nation. I mean, it s seemingly impossible! Go back to If you had asked a teacher on Bible prophecy, ten years before Israel became a nation in 1948, I m guessing percent would have said, No, Israel will not be a nation in ten years. I don t think so. There s not really much chance. It was such a radical, supernatural move of God to put them in the land in their rebellion, and in their unbelief, and even in their stubbornness towards God. FOCUS ON JESUS IN YOUR ZEAL FOR THE PURPOSES OF GOD He brought them to the land. There are several reasons that s important. Some people look at Israel and get more fascinated with Israel than they do with Jesus. They get this really false romantic idea about Jewish people and Israel water and Israel rocks and Israel plants and Israel this. Israel becomes an idol to some of these Gentile believers. They love Jesus, but they actually get more into Israel than Jesus. That s off and out of balance from the Holy Spirit s point of view. And they meet these Jewish people, and they have really romantic ideas about them. But they were brought to the land in their rebellion and stubbornness. Many of them hate God. They have no interest in Jesus. And they say, Hi, I m here in Israel. It s good to be here. Get out of my way! Whoa, what s happening here? I thought it was going to be like the postcards. No, they re gathered in their unbelief and rebellion and stubbornness. And a whole lot of what they do, the Lord doesn t approve of. Some Gentiles are into the notion that Israel can do no wrong. And that s not true. Israel is doing a whole lot of wrong, but so is America and so are all the other nations. Don t get into a romance with a nation. Be connected to Jesus and His purposes for Jerusalem, because His purposes are going to disturb a lot of Jewish people because He has an agenda that they don t agree with, but He isn t asking their opinion. A lot of Gentiles also don t agree, but He isn t asking their opinion either. So we want to be focused on Jesus in our zeal for God s purposes for the city of Jerusalem. SIGN EVENT NUMBER TWO: THE RECAPTURE OF THE CITY OF JERUSALEM Sign event number two. The first one is the nation of Israel, and that s the one we spent the most time on. The others we ll just go over briefly. We have ten events. Equally, if not even more significant than Israel becoming a nation is the city of Jerusalem coming under their authority. In 1967, June 1967, they recaptured the city of Jerusalem. That s when I believe the pause button

7 Transcript: 11/06/09 Page 7 went off. And maybe it happened when Israel became a nation. But when I read the prophecies, it seems Jerusalem is the real centerpiece the city of Jerusalem itself, the city of the great King. And not that we have to split hairs on that. For 2,000 years Jerusalem hasn t been under the control of the Jewish people. Because Jesus is only going to come back to the planet when the Jewish people say to Him, We receive you in the city of Jerusalem as our God, our King, and our Messiah. And He will only come into Jerusalem when He is invited by the people to whom He gave the nation. He s going to shake them up to get them ready to say yes to Him. He s going to shake them up with displays of His love and with displays of shaking the nation to the core. He s going to reveal tremendous tenderness, but He s also going to wake them up with great shakings and great judgments. He says, I want Jerusalem to receive me. When Jerusalem receives me, I m not just coming in and taking over. I will wait until they invite Me in, but when they invite Me in, I will call the New Jerusalem down to the earth, the age to come is going to begin, and I will take over the earth from the city of Jerusalem. I m not going to take the city of Jerusalem by force. I will wait until the Jewish people, to whom I gave it, invite Me as a free will expression of their love for Me. They will call Me God and ask Me to be their leader. And I won t be their leader until they ask me. A lot is going to happen between now and then that s going to wake them up so that millions of them will want Jesus to be their King. He says, I m not just taking it over. I mean, when you re God and you have Genesis 1 on your resume, you can do anything you want. But He says, I m not going to muscle them. I will wait until they invite Me, but I will create the environment to help them to wake up by an outpouring of love, and also by a fierce shaking. And they ll say yes to Me in love. Then, when I m invited, then I ll take over the earth from there. But I m getting to Jerusalem first. JERUSALEM SHALL BE INHABITED AGAIN IN HER OWN PLACE Look at what it says in Zechariah Now if you read it in context, this is right before the second coming. It s these hours, these days right now. Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place (Zech. 12:6). Again, for 2,000 years, people read that and thought, It isn t possible that Jewish people can be in Jerusalem again before the second coming. Zechariah must have meant after the second coming. No, he meant before, and it happened as a result of the Six Day War. SIGN EVENT NUMBER THREE: ISRAEL HAS A STANDING ARMY Sign number three. Again, this doesn t mean much to someone who doesn t really understand what s going on. They say, Well, that s kind of neat. No, it s hugely impossible for this ever to have happened. It s a sign and a wonder on a global, historical level. And the fact that it s in the Bible alerts us to its importance. And the fact that most of these events and trends are happening together and accelerating rapidly in the same hour of history beloved, it doesn t take a whole lot of discernment to know that we re in a unique time of history. But a lot of believers don t connect with that. Because they don t know the Word, they don t know what the Word says about it. But when they do, they say, Wow, I didn t know that was in there. Sign event number three. Again, it might not seem that dramatic, but when you look at the historical context, it s really dramatic. The Israeli military, or army, would be in place. Israel hasn t had an army for 2,000 years

8 Transcript: 11/06/09 Page 8 because they haven t had a nation. Israel doesn t have an army, but Zechariah and other verses describe the Israeli military before Jesus returns. How can you be describing the Israel army? There s not one Zechariah would say, Yes, there will be. Wait and see. Well, how can they have a military? They don t even have a nation. Wait and see. And then, at the very end, when they re warring against the Antichrist, God will anoint their army like He did to David (Zech. 12:8-9). This is an important point. He s talking about soldiers. He s talking about anointing military people in their war particularly against the Antichrist. He would anoint them like David, and then He would come and be in their midst soon after this. Read Zechariah 12; it s quite exciting. THE LORD HAS AN ULTIMATE PURPOSE FOR THE ARMY OF ISRAEL Now, just because the Lord has a purpose for the Israeli army doesn t mean that He approves of all of their morality or policies between now and then. I believe He disapproves of many things that the Israeli army and government does. But having said that, I believe He disapproves of many things the US government and army do. You name the nation, and you can put that same description in. So I m not trying to point out the Israeli army, but I don t want us glamorizing it because the Lord will anoint them in a special way. Just because He has a purpose for them in the end doesn t mean they can do no wrong. Now 99 percent of you don t think that, but for the 1 percent, I just want you to adjust your thinking. The Israeli army does lots of wrong things, but the Lord said they would be in place, and He would visit and anoint them. Zechariah told us about that 2,500 years ago, and it s happening. The beginnings of this are happening right now. Top of page three. The fourth event that was prophesied. And I have ten of them. Again, there s more than ten, if you really search it out. So you take this list and add a few to it when you find it in the Bible. Again the apostles prophesied it, Jesus prophesied it, and the Old Testament prophets prophesied it. So just add to this list these signs and these events and these trends, but make this a beginning point. THE ABOMINATION THAT LEADS TO GREAT DESOLATION Paragraph A. Matthew 24:15. Jesus warns us, when we see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, to flee to the mountains, because the Great Tribulation is about to begin (Mt. 24:15-16). The abomination of desolation is when the Antichrist, who has been posing as a man of peace, takes off his mask and reveals himself to be a man of sin. The nations think he s benevolent and helpful. He s the most demonic man that has every walked the planet. And when he pulls that mask off, he will walk into the Jerusalem temple, go into the holy place, and will put an image of himself in the holy place. And he will say, Away with Judaism, away with Christianity, away with Islam, away with all religions. You ll worship me and only me. He puts his image in the holy place in Jerusalem in the temple, and it s a great abomination because millions will worship him as God related to that image he puts in the temple. So he places the image in the temple and demands the worship of the nations. He will require the nations to worship him as God; that s the great abomination. That abomination will lead to great desolation of many people and many nations. So Jesus says that when the Antichrist does that, there will be a great abomination, but it will lead to great desolation. So he calls the whole event the abomination that leads to desolation. Jesus said that believers would

9 Transcript: 11/06/09 Page 9 see it. We will be here on the earth when this happens. He says, When you see it, flee to the mountains if you live in Jerusalem, because great trouble is coming. A PEACE THAT IS STEEPED IN DARKNESS AND DECEPTION Paragraph B. Daniel 9 speaks about this same event. Now this is the angel Gabriel speaking to Daniel in Daniel 9:27. Gabriel gives Daniel very straightforward information about the generation the Lord returns and about this great abomination, when the Antichrist puts his image in the Jerusalem temple. Here in verse 27, Gabriel is talking about the Antichrist. He s going to make a covenant with Israel and many Middle Eastern nations. He s going to make a covenant and bring peace to the whole Middle East, and people are going to praise him around the world as the greatest politician. He brought peace. He brought all the hostile parties to the table and everyone walked away happy. He will be the first man ever to do it, but it s steeped in darkness and deception. HE WILL CONFIRM THE COVENANT WITH MANY FOR ONE WEEK This is Gabriel talking, and he explains to Daniel that this man will make a covenant, not just with Israel, but with many nations, for one week. Now, in the Old Testament, a week could be seven days or seven years. When someone said, Hey, I ll see you in a week, you had to specify a week of days or a week of years. Now in English when someone says, I ll see you in a week, we always know it s a week of days. But in ancient Israel, you had to ask the next question: Do you mean see you in a moment or see you in years? In this case, he was talking about a week of years, seven years. He said, The Antichrist will make a covenant for seven years, but he will pull his mask off right in the middle of that week, that seven-year period. He will pull his mask off and reveal himself as a man of sin, not as a man of peace. HE WILL BRING AN END TO THE SACRIFICE AND THE OFFERING It s interesting that when he breaks the covenant with Israel, what does he do? He brings an end to the sacrifice and the offering. You say, What on earth does that mean? Well, when he makes a covenant with Israel, part of the agreement is this. He says, OK, here s the deal: I will be your main leader. And the nation is going to buy this. They ll be deceived and buy it. Israel is going to say, We want the temple and we want sacrifices. We want to go back to the laws of Moses and we want to offer these sacrifices. By the way, the Lord isn t pleased with these sacrifices. He doesn t receive them. The blood of Jesus is the only thing He receives. So they offer the sacrifices, but it doesn t help them with God. They re into this hyperreligious thing, and Gabriel says they ll do it. But when the Antichrist turns on them, he s going to stop the sacrifices. Now, that doesn t mean a lot to us in 2009 because, well, number one, most of us aren t Jewish people living in Israel. There might be one or two visitors here that would be true of. So we say, So what? No, this is huge, because right now there s no temple in Israel, so there are no sacrifices to stop. Why? Because they haven t started yet. But I tell you, very soon they ll build the temple in Israel and they ll start the sacrificial system, and

10 Transcript: 11/06/09 Page 10 then the end-time prophetic teachers around the earth will be jolted again when that happens. All of them are beginning to say, Hey, this is really going to happen. Then, there s going to be a very peaceful man, a very attractive man who is going to help them build that temple, or at least establish that in the land. And one day, suddenly, he s going to pull the carpet out from under them and stop the sacrifices. He s going to pull off his mask and say, Hey, you worship me and only me. You re not worshiping the God of the Bible. I m God. And that s it. And then, well, the sign will have great significance then. Right now, the reason we care about it is because we know that it s leading up to the building of the temple and the initiating of the sacrificial system. You re so close to the coming of the Lord when that happens. I m getting ahead of myself. But right now, many in Israel are pushing hard to rebuild the temple. Not the majority, but there are many involved in this. They want to build the temple now and they re preparing the sacrifices. They re learning them now; they re getting all the priestly garments and all the vessels. Again, I m getting ahead of myself. They re getting ready right now. You go on the Internet and check it out. You check out some of the references I have here in the notes. It s amazing: they re pressing it right now. Never before, not in 2,000 years, have the people of Israel worked on building a temple and starting up the Mosaic sacrifices the sacrifices that Moses instituted 3,500 years ago. They ll take his teachings and start them all up again. God isn t looking at them and saying, Wow, look how sincere they are. Those sacrifices don t make them right with God at all. But their religious zeal is going to reach a whole new pitch of intensity before they get converted and see the light about Jesus. It says over and over that the animal sacrifices are going to be stopped by the Antichrist. I mean, it s repeated so many times in the Bible. That as a Gentile. I don t live there, I m not that, you know, I m not involved in any of that. I think, Gabriel, why did you mention this so many times? I mean this is mentioned like more times than really important prophecies are. That the Antichrist is going to stop the sacrifices. The answer might be, It will be far more significant in that day. That s why I repeated it so often. Or that s why the angels did when they spoke to Daniel. SIGN EVENT NUMBER FIVE: THE REBUILDING OF THE TEMPLE Roman numeral VI. The fifth event. I ve already mentioned it: the fifth event is the building of the temple. Now the temple was destroyed in 70 AD. The temple has been destroyed for 2,000 years. There s no temple there right now, but Paul prophesied about it, John prophesied about it, and Daniel prophesied about it, and Gabriel talked about it when he visited Daniel. That temple is going to be built, as I said just a moment ago. Paragraph C. You can look at it on your own. There are organizations several organizations, not just one. I ve mentioned the most prominent one, the Temple Institute. They re promoting this with great zeal. Just go out on your own and check it out. They ve invested a lot of zeal, a lot of research, and a lot of money into doing this. They re teaching the nation. And I m not saying the majority of the nation, but many of the secular Jews are excited about this. They ve been polling them in various ways, and they re saying, This would be good for Israel. That s odd, because there s so much ungodliness in the nation. I m talking about unbelievers, secular Jews, not even devout Orthodox. They think it would be good for the land. There s a movement to build the

11 Transcript: 11/06/09 Page 11 temple, right now as I speak. And that movement has only been going for a few years now, maybe for two decades, as a whisper. But it s building momentum rapidly right now. That in itself is a sign of the times. When you get all the information on how much it s building up, you ll say, You know, maybe this is a more strategic hour than meets the eye. Jesus said that the unbelievers around the earth won t even have a clue that it s the hour of His return, even though these signs are clearly spoken in the Bible. They re meant to be discerned and they re meant to build faith and confidence in our spirit. THE NATION OF ISRAEL IS GOING TO REINSTITUTE THE DAILY SACRIFICES Top of page four. The daily sacrifices, I just mentioned that. They re based on the law of Moses, given 3,500 years ago. In Exodus 19, God visited the mountain and the mountain shook with fire and God gave Moses the law, the Ten Commandments. He went up the mountain several times and received the law. That was 3,500 years ago, but they need a temple and they need to be in control of the city of Jerusalem and have a temple in it, or they can t fulfill those prescribed religious rituals that Moses talked about 3,500 years ago. And that s their desire. Now they have Jerusalem and they re about to rebuild the temple and they ll reinstate these daily sacrifices. The Antichrist is going to say yes to them. And I m guessing that will be part of the deal, when he makes peace with them. They ll say, Hey, what about these sacrifices? Oh, I love that you do that. You guys have a good spirit. This is great. He is going to deceive them radically. They ll start these sacrifices, but when they do and I don t think we re so far away from that; again, I m convinced you ll see it in your lifetime, and it s building in momentum unless you re old when you see it, at the very last minute, you ll see the coming of the Lord soon after that. These things are building momentum right now in Israel. SIGN EVENT NUMBER SEVEN: THE ESTABLISHING OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE Event number seven is the establishing of the Hebrew language. It says in Zephaniah 3:9 that He will restore to the people a pure language, and that they will call upon the name of the Lord which, in the end, means Jesus. It won t just be the God of Israel; they ll know His name as Jesus. There s no other salvation for Israel besides Jesus, or for anyone for that matter. There s only one way of salvation: through Jesus. He says, For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language, that they all may call on the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one accord (Zeph. 3:9). Right now, the Jewish people are in many nations of the earth; so when they come back to Israel, they speak all these other languages. They didn t speak Hebrew out in the other nations. I mean, some of them have learned Hebrew in the Hebrew schools; but most of them spoke the language that they grew up in. So now they come to Israel, and the Hebrew thing is a burden. But Zephaniah had this to say 2,500 years ago. He said, There s a day coming when they ll all speak one language. No nation, no people, has ever been without a homeland for a full forty years. No nation has ever been outside their homeland for forty years and kept their national language without a homeland. It has never happened in history. But now, 2,000 years later, they returned, the language is revived, and they speak it as the national language. That s a sign of the times.

12 Transcript: 11/06/09 Page 12 Go back to If you had asked someone ten years before Israel became a nation, Hey, is Israel going to become a nation? they would have said, Not a chance! Are they going to speak Hebrew in the streets of Israel really soon? No, not in our lifetime! Suddenly, God has allowed them to call out with one language, with one accord because they all speak the same language. They might speak another language as well from their heritage in another nation, the Gentile nations. But they ll speak with one language in the land where they live. And we see that today. It s the official language of the land. That came out of nowhere. It was such a surprise on the world scene. SIGN EVENT NUMBER EIGHT: THE ESTABLISHING OF THE SABBATH Number eight: the establishing of the Sabbath. Again we think, Well, Jewish leaders and the Sabbath; that goes together. There hasn t been a Sabbath observed in Israel for 2,000 years. But Jesus said that when the abomination of desolation happens, when the Antichrist puts his image in the temple, number one, there s going to be a temple. Number two, he s going to put his image in it. Number three, there s going to be a Sabbath operating in Israel. People for 2,000 years have said, Well, there s no Sabbath in Israel. That has to be symbolic. Jesus might have said, No, there will be. In the moment before I return, for just a moment, I will set things in motion and they ll have a Sabbath. It looked like Jesus missed it on this one for about 2,000 years, but we know better than that. Israel established the Sabbath as part of their civil law. It s part of the actual law. It s strictly observed. On the Sabbath they shut down the buses, and a lot of the grocery stores, and hospitals cut back. I mean, it s a burden to the secular people. They say, What is the deal here? Well, it s shouting to the nations. Many aren t hearing it, but for 2,000 years, even though there was no Sabbath in Israel, the Bible said there would be one again. It s another token that the Bible prophecies are coming to pass. But it isn t just one here and one there. They re all coming to pass in the same time frame, and the time frame is now. This wasn t true seventy years ago. There was no Sabbath in Israel seventy years ago. This is a new development. SIGN EVENT NUMBER NINE: COUNTERFEIT PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST Number nine. This is yet to come: peace in the Middle East. It will get worse, and then a man, an evil man, is going to bring a counterfeit peace, and people are going to honor him worldwide. They think things will get better. But no, it will get way worse after that. That will be a sign of the times. When this peace breaks out, there will be believers who think, Praise God, we prayed for unity and it s finally come. And they ll have a big fellowship dinner. It s the devil doing it. What do you mean? It s peace. Everyone is happy. They re putting down all their arms. Wait, don t buy it. He is about to pull his mask off. A few years after that we ll see that he s not a man of peace, he s a man of sin. He is the most demonized man ever to walk the earth.

13 Transcript: 11/06/09 Page 13 SIGN EVENT NUMBER TEN: TWO WITNESSES PREACHING IN POWER XI. Sign event number ten. Now this is yet ahead, but when this happens, I believe there will be people in this room who will actually see this in their lifetime. Elijah and the two witnesses will actually minister in the city of Jerusalem in power. Now Elijah might be one of the two witnesses. We don t know. We know there are two witnesses, and we know there s Elijah. So it s either two witnesses plus Elijah, or Elijah plus one other witness. I don t know, and frankly I don t care. When these guys are preaching in power, I will be so jazzed if I m still here. I ll be saying, This is so awesome! I ll ask them to come speak at IHOP-KC. I ll give them the webstream free. I ll say, Hey, you can watch the prayer room anytime you want. Actually, we re working really hard to make the webstream completely free to the nations. We re not quite there yet; there are still a few more things to get in order. But in our spirit, in our leadership team, we ve been resolved on it for a while. There are a lot of things taking place. So they ll get it free anyway. SIGN TRENDS OF THE FINAL GENERATION Trend number one. We re out of time, so I ll just say these one, two, three. Trend number one: the salvation exploding in the land of Israel. I mentioned this in the positive signs of the times a few sessions ago. Paragraph A. I said this, but I ll say it again because it s just so fun to say. We re just going to look at Paragraph A on this one. More Jews are coming to Jesus than at any time in history since the first century. Just go back to Less than 100 Jewish believers lived in the land of Israel. There were only two congregations. Ten years later, there were 500 believers. I mean, it was a revival. People couldn t believe it. We went from 100 to 500, and we were exploding. I remember I know a lot of you don t, but I remember It was exciting there were 500 people, and it grew. There were ten whole congregations wow! We went from two to ten! That s exploding. Well today, a few years later, there are 120 congregations, not ten. There are 15,000 believers and the numbers are growing fast. It s the greatest move of God since the early church. And it will just go straight uphill in numbers. We re in a unique time frame right now. The Bible said this would happen in the generation the Lord returns. Well no, He said it would happen before the Lord returns. But it s another one of those trends added with all the others we looked at. The positive trends and the negative trends are happening together on a global level not strictly all, but most of them. If you go back to the last session, we looked at the positive and the negative trends. Now here are the trends in Israel. In our next session we ll look at the trends in the Gentile nations: globalization, and the Internet, and all that some through implication, and others in very direct statements. But that s for the next session. THE OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND PRAYER IN THE CITY OF JERUSALEM OK, top of page 6. The second trend. Don t take this for granted. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit and prayer in the city of Jerusalem. Isaiah said that night-and-day prayer would go on in Jerusalem until Jerusalem was a praise in the earth (Isa. 62:6). Well, Jerusalem is hated in all the earth right now. Jerusalem is not a praise in the earth right now. Jerusalem will be a praise in the earth only one time, when Jesus comes back.

14 Transcript: 11/06/09 Page 14 Isaiah said there would be people crying out (Isa. 62:6-7). God will put people in the city of Jerusalem and He will put people in the nations crying out for Jerusalem. They will cry night and day, night and day, night and day. When the night-and-day prayer movement for Jerusalem begins, it will not stop until Jesus comes and makes Jerusalem the praise in the earth by making it His own city, greater than all the cities of the earth. MINISTRIES THROUGHOUT THE EARTH ARE STANDING ON THE WALL OF INTERCESSION So that s happening right now for the first time on a global level. And it s happening for the first time in Israel at a level we haven t seen before. There are four prayer groups right now in Israel. They re small in number, but they re resolved. There s another set of groups, another four or five, that are really determined to build a house of prayer in the city of Jerusalem. This is a brand-new phenomenon. This wasn t true in It wasn t true in It s true now. And those prayer meetings are going to continue until Jerusalem is a praise in the earth, which means until Jesus returns. Because Jerusalem will not be a praise in the earth until Jesus returns and declares it the city of the great King and puts His throne in it, and governs the whole earth from it. And the whole earth will praise the city of Jerusalem in that hour. But before Jerusalem is a praise in the earth, there will be night-and-day prayer meetings for years leading up to that time. And they re already beginning right now. They ve been going, just recently. You can get all the details. And the details are easy to find of these different prayer ministries. But it isn t just the ministries in Jerusalem; that to me is the most dramatic. But the ministries around the earth are taking hold, and they re standing on the wall of intercession. Not the physical walls in the land, like some of those intercessors are, but they re on the wall of intercession globally and they re crying out for Jerusalem. The night-and-day prayer ministry, the twenty-four/seven prayer ministry, is building in momentum like no other time in history. It s a sign of the times. GOD WILL POUR OUT THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY ON THE CITY OF JERUSALEM The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Joel 2. When you read it carefully, we always say, Dreams and visions for sons and daughters on all flesh (Joel 2:28-32), and we leave it there, which is fine because we re Gentiles, and we like it there. And that s OK, but you might as well go all the way. If you read the whole passage, it s actually talking not only about Jerusalem, but it actually specifies people in Jerusalem calling out for the dreams and visions and for the deliverance of God. So this prophecy that we re so familiar with is for all believers globally and all the Gentiles in the nations that love Jesus. But there s a Jerusalem-centric dimension to it. There s going to be a great outpouring in the city of Jerusalem. In Acts 2 there was a local outpouring of the Holy Spirit that had global dimensions. In this hour, there s a global outpouring of the Holy Spirit that will have local dimensions in Jerusalem. It will go the other way around. I got that straight from Wes Hall. I like that. I said, I hope I can say that. I said it. Let me say it again so I can get it. In Acts 2, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was local, but it had global ramifications. Now, 2,000 years later, there s a global outpouring, but it will shift the city of Jerusalem in a very radical way. It will have local implications for Jerusalem. But that outpouring of the Spirit and the prayer ministry is specified as being Jerusalem-centric, although it belongs to the whole world. All of us can buy into that. It s for all believers. But Jerusalem is named in that outpouring of the Spirit in promise. JERUSALEM WILL BE THE CENTER OF WORLD CONTROVERSY

15 Transcript: 11/06/09 Page 15 Trend number three. This is significant. Jerusalem will be the center of world controversy. That s happening right now. That wasn t true ten years before Israel became a nation. Go back just ten years. No one thought about Jerusalem much. Now it s the center of world controversy. There were some local wars and tension going on, but in the aftermath of World War I there was all kinds of tensions throughout Europe and the Middle East and everywhere. Jerusalem wasn t the main city on anyone s mind in terms of a global dimension. Now there s no city more controversial than Jerusalem. The prophet said this 2,500 years ago, and it s happening right now in our day. THE RISE OF ANTI-SEMITISM ON A GLOBAL LEVEL Trend number four. The rise of anti-semitism on a global level. Just check it out on the Internet. The Bible prophesied that this will happen. It will happen on a global level. It will surpass anything that happened in Nazi Germany. It will have a global dimension. God is going to require the people who love Jesus to stand with the Jewish people. That s one way that they ll provoke the Jews to jealousy unto salvation. Because believers will operate in the power of God and they ll not be afraid of death because they believe in the resurrection. They ll have the root system of the Jewish tree, the olive tree. Why? Because we will believe what the prophet said. We believe it; it s part of our root system. And the last one is not a small one. We don t have time to develop it. It s the kingdom relationships between Israel, and Egypt, and Iraq or Assyria, but it s mostly Iraq. You can read that on your own. The Bible says can you imagine? that when the Lord returns, He s going to cause Israel, Egypt, and Iraq to be best friends. They ll come together in a strategic way when He comes that will relate to the government of the earth. He wants them in unity. But the people who love Jesus, the apostolic leaders of the churches in those nations, are being drawn together ahead of time, to do in part what will happen in fullness on that day. You can already see the movement of leaders in those three nations finding each other through the love and the reality of Jesus. That s significant. Folks in America might say, Well, that s kind of neat. No, it s hugely significant. And it s building; it s slow, but it s moving forward even now as we speak. And it s a new development that s happening in terms of the Body of Christ on a global level. I m excited by that one. MINISTRY TIME Amen. Well, I know you just drank from a fire hydrant. I mean, if this is new to you, you think, Now what? Let s go ahead and stand. Ten trends; ten events. There are actually more events than that; but that s a good beginning. Beloved, I m convinced. Again, it s my opinion, but it s based on observation of biblical signs and biblical trends. We re in the early days of that generation. I believe it. No one can know for sure. No one knows the day or the hour. But I believe there are people alive on the earth right now whether they re two years old or twenty who will see the Lord with their own eyes. And it could be sooner. And it may stretch out a while. But these signs and trends are meant to be discerned and to awaken faith in our spirit. Because there are a lot of implications to these if we re reading them rightly. And I believe that we are. They re all mounting up and accelerating. Amen. We re just going to wait on the Lord for a moment. Go ahead and let the instruments play.